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Weather at Bluestone National Scenic River in West Virginia is one of the "vital signs" the Eastern Rivers and Mountains Network tracks to judge the health of ecosystems in select parks in West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York. For 2020 the verdict was warm and extremely wet: the 18th-warmest year and the third-wettest on record.
Weather and climate
Weather is the short-term (minutes to months) changes in the atmosphere, what is happening outside at this moment, whether rain, snow or a warm sunny day. Climate is what you expect from long-term patterns over 30 years or more. Climate is what you might expect, like a hot summer, and weather is what you get, like a warm rainy day. This summary puts 2020's weather in the context of long-term climate.
The numbers are county-scale data averaged over the counties around the park, Mercer and Summers counties in West Virginia, with records back to 1895 from the National Climate Data Center. Individual weather stations may differ.
Month by month
| Month | Temperature (°F) | Against long-term average (°F) | Precipitation (in.) | Against long-term average (in.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 37.1 | +5.2 | 2.5 | -0.7 |
| February | 38.7 | +4.7 | 5.9 | +2.9 |
| March | 48.2 | +6.2 | 4.8 | +1.0 |
| April | 48.5 | -3.2 | 6.9 | +3.4 |
| May | 57.4 | -3.4 | 6.9 | +3.0 |
| June | 66.7 | -1.1 | 5.8 | +1.9 |
| July | 73.5 | +2.3 | 3.8 | -0.7 |
| August | 71.4 | +1.4 | 5.7 | +2.0 |
| September | 62.8 | -1.5 | 4.0 | +1.0 |
| October | 55.1 | +1.6 | 3.5 | +0.7 |
| November | 47.2 | +4.4 | 2.5 | -0.1 |
| December | 33.5 | -0.6 | 3.2 | +0.1 |
| Year | 53.3 | +1.3 | 55.5 | +14.5 |
Departures compare 2020 with long-term averages from 1895 to 2019.
Seven months were warmer than normal, with January, February, March and November each more than 4.0°F above their averages. The year's total precipitation of 55.5 inches was more than 14 inches above average.
A century of change
Across 1895 to 2020 the data for the two counties show annual average temperature rising about 0.03°F per decade and annual precipitation falling about 0.08 inch per decade.
Annual average temperature (°F) and annual total precipitation (in.) for Mercer and Summers counties, West Virginia, 1895 to 2020, with dashed lines for linear estimates of change. NPS figure.
National Park Service scientists have also projected the future. Models estimate that by 2100 the park's annual average temperature will rise by 2.9 to 8.6°F, from the best-case to the worst-case scenario, and that annual total precipitation will rise by 6 to 11 percent, according to a 2018 study led by Gonzalez.
The source adds that rapid climate change is challenging national parks in new ways, by altering wildlife migrations, bringing more destructive storms to cultural resources and facilities and disrupting habitat.
Sources
- National Park Service, Eastern Rivers and Mountains Network, "2020 Weather In Review: Bluestone National Scenic River" (https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/2020-weather-in-review-bluestone-national-scenic-river.htm); the seasonal ranking figures, whose labels disagree with the monthly table, and a photograph credited to a Flickr user are left out; rewritten in hubnx's own words.
In these publicationsBluestone National Scenic River
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.nps.gov
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